sex links

[buckboy101]

I was told that when sex link chickens reproduce that they don't create a new sex link chicken, instead they will create a mix of red chickens. Is that true? I could really use some help on this one.

 

[Ms.Frizzle]

Yes, that is correct. For example, a black sex link (BSL) is a cross between a Rhode Island Red (RIR) rooster, and a Barred Rock (BS) hen. The resulting offspring is known as a hybrid, aka, a mutt, but in this case, a mutt that lays relatively well while still producing some meat. If you were to cross the BSL's together, their offspring could be wide range of features from the RIR or the BS.

 

[buckboy101]

Thanks so much!

 

[Ridgerunner]

The first post in this thread explains it pretty well.

Tadkerson’s Sex Link Thread
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=261208

In chickens there are a few genes that the hen only gives to her sons. Her daughters do not get that gene from her. But the father gives a gene to both male and female offspring. So a male offspring gets one copy of the gene from both parents but the female offspring only has one copy of that gene which she got from her father. If the gene that the son gets from the mother is dominant over the gene that the father gives to both, then there will be a noticable difference in the offspring.

In the case of red sex links, the father has to have the gold gene and the mother has to have the silver gene. The gold gene gives a chick that has reddish down, while the silver gene causes a chick's down to be yellow. If the chick has one gold and one silver, the silver dominates and causes yellow down.

But after the cross is made, the red sex link hen has the gold gene, not the silver. She will give this to her sone sbut not her daughters. But the father has one gold and one silver. He will give one of these to each offspring, but you never know if he is going to give a gold or a silver. His daughters will get nothing from the mother, but he will give some daughters the silver gene (yellow down) and some daughters will get the gold gene (reddish down). Same with his sons. His sons will get the gold from the mother, but they might get either gold or silver from him. So some of his sons will have yellwo down and some will have reddish down. You cannot tell sex by color.

Hope that helps a little.